{"id":"SA-Z1953-036","label":"Motilones ritual bullroarer","people_or_site":"Motilones","country_current":"Colombia; Venezuela","historic_region":"Circum-Caribbean / Sierra de Perija","macroregion":"South America","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrgerät / Schwirrholz / bullroarer","source_language":"German / English extraction","object_description":"","function_summary":"Strictly ritual bullroarer; taboo to women; decorated rectangular wooden plate","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"zerries1953","source_type":"source_catalog","source_url":"https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf","page_or_plate":"Reichel-Dolmatoff 1945:44, Lámina VII fig. 4 (in Zerries 1953:290)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Representative Sierra de Perija coordinate; ritual details are sparse, but the taboo and ritual status are strong.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Motilones of the Sierra de Perijá, on the Colombia–Venezuela border, the bullroarer was a thin rectangular plate of white wood with a small projecting tab where the cord was tied, its two faces covered in pyrographed designs. Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, who recorded it as director of the 1944 Instituto Etnológico Nacional expedition, found it to be a strictly ritual instrument and forbidden to women. He could say little more, noting that he lacked the comparative data to treat so interesting an object properly. Otto Zerries supplied a comparison in 1953: among the related Caribs of Guiana, the bullroarer belonged to the medicine man and did much the same work as his maraca rattle.","pull_quote":"El zumbador, instrumento estrictamente ritual para los Motilones, es tabú para las mujeres. Desgraciadamente me faltan datos comparativos detallados para poder tratar de este elemento tan interesante.","pull_quote_translation":"The bullroarer, an instrument strictly ritual for the Motilones, is taboo to women. Unfortunately I lack detailed comparative data to be able to treat this most interesting element.","pull_quote_cite":"Reichel-Dolmatoff 1945:44, quoted in Zerries 1953:290","term_gloss":"","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, 'Los Indios Motilones,' Revista del Instituto Etnológico Nacional 2(1) (Bogotá, 1945), p. 44 and pl. VII fig. 4; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 290, 297","url":"https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260420134455/https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, 'Los Indios Motilones,' Revista del Instituto Etnológico Nacional 2(1) (Bogotá, 1945), p. 44 and pl. VII fig. 4; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 290, 297","source_display":"Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, 'Los Indios Motilones,' Revista del Instituto Etnológico Nacional 2(1) (Bogotá, 1945), p. 44 and pl. VII fig. 4; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 290, 297","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"Strictly ritual bullroarer; taboo to women; decorated rectangular wooden plate","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"motilones","display_name":"Motilones ritual bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-036_zerries1953_fig4.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-036_zerries1953_fig4_thumb.jpg","alt":"Book illustration and caption of a long rectangular Motilones bull-roarer with a bold zigzag pattern, reproduced by Zerries from Reichel-Dolmatoff.","credit":"Otto Zerries, The Bull-roarer among South American Indians (1953), Fig. 4, after Reichel-Dolmatoff 1945","license":"Scholarly figure crop; non-commercial research use","source_page":"https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Motilones bull-roarer from the Sierra de Perija, Colombia, reproduced by Zerries from Reichel-Dolmatoff.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-036_rd1945_laminaVII.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-036_rd1945_laminaVII_thumb.jpg","credit":"Reichel-Dolmatoff, Los Indios Motilones (1945), Lamina VII — ICANH digital edition","license":"CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (ICANH) — rehosted unmodified low-res","source_page":"https://publicaciones.icanh.gov.co/index.php/picanh/catalog/view/247/271/1633","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Reichel-Dolmatoff's Lamina VII: the zumbador is fig. 4, lower right — the pyro-engraved blade with its cord-knob."}]},"slug":"sa-z1953-036-motilones"}